To George the Presbyter and Theodore the Deacon, on Christ’s Descent into Hell

Gregory to George, presbyter, and to Theodore, deacon, of the church of Constantinople. [a]

Remembering your goodness and love, I greatly blame myself for giving you leave to return so soon. But since I saw you pressing me insistently, again and again, for leave to go, I thought it might be a hardship for your love to stay with us any longer. But after I learned that you had been held up so long on your journey by the winter season, I confess that I was sorry you had been sent away so soon. For if your love was unable to make the journey you intended, it would have been better for you to be held up with me than away from me.

Moreover, after you left, I learned from what my most beloved sons the deacons told me that your love had said this: that our Almighty Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when he went down into hell, saved all who there acknowledged him as God, and set them free from the pains that were their due. On this subject I want your love to think very differently. For when he went down into hell, he set free by his grace only those who both believed that he would come and kept his commands in their lives. For it is clear that, since the Lord’s incarnation, no one can be saved, even of those who hold his faith, who does not have the life of faith. For it is written, “They profess that they know God, but in their deeds they deny him.” And John says, “Whoever says that he knows him, and does not keep his commandments, is a liar.” James too, the brother of the Lord, writes, saying, “Faith without works is dead.” If, then, believers now are not saved without good works, while the unbelieving and the reprobate were saved without good action by our Lord’s going down into hell, then the lot of those who never saw the Lord’s incarnation was better than that of those who have been born after the mystery of his incarnation. But how foolish it is to say or think this, the Lord himself testifies to his disciples when he says, “Many kings and prophets have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them.” But so as not to keep your love busy with an argument of my own, learn what Philaster, in the book he wrote about heresies, says about this heresy. His words are these: “They are heretics who say that the Lord went down into hell and, after death, made himself known to all who were already there, so that by acknowledging him there they might be saved. For this is contrary to the prophet David, where he says, ‘But in hell who will acknowledge you?’ and to the apostle: ‘As many as have sinned without the law will perish without law.’” And the blessed Augustine also agrees with his words in the book he wrote about heresies. [b]

So, considering all these things, hold nothing but what the true faith teaches through the catholic church: namely, that the Lord, in going down into hell, rescued from the prison of hell only those whom, while they lived in the flesh, he kept by his grace in faith and good conduct. For when he says in the Gospel, “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all to myself,” he means all who are chosen. For one who had separated himself from God by evil living could not be drawn to God after death. May Almighty God keep you under his protection, so that wherever you are, you may feel the help of his grace in soul and body. [e]